Need help to get my MLC to perform well

[Pterinochilus]

Hi all,

I am currently playing as Nottingham Forest and have done fairly well so far, but for seasons on end now I have struggled to get my left sided central midfielder to perform well. I have been using different players there but none of them rarely gets an average rating higher than around 6.70.

 

This is the first version of my tactic. Result-wise it was the one working the best, but whoever plays cm(a) rarely performs. I thought it might have something to do with the IWB(s) getting in his way but changing him into FB(s) didn`t help.

 

 

This is the second version of my tactic where I tried to change the cm(a) into a mezzala and changing the IWB into a FB(s). I tried the mezzala both on support and attack but again he struggles to perform.

 

 

Does anyone have any ideas of how to balance either of these tactics in order for my left sided central midfielder to start performing better and be more involved in the play?

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by Pterinochilus

[summatsupeer]

Whilst there is a Winger outside of him so should be space inside, as an attack duty I don't see how his attacking runs will find space when there's a PF-At pushing opponents deep and there is no one occupying opposition defensive midfielders except maybe if the IW-Su cuts inside and goes on a long dribble.

With the natural overlap on the right flank i'd probably go for a support duty, maybe a BBM who can arrive late into the box and be more central than a MEZ.

[Pterinochilus]

12 minutes ago, summatsupeer said:

Whilst there is a Winger outside of him so should be space inside, as an attack duty I don't see how his attacking runs will find space when there's a PF-At pushing opponents deep and there is no one occupying opposition defensive midfielders except maybe if the IW-Su cuts inside and goes on a long dribble.

With the natural overlap on the right flank i'd probably go for a support duty, maybe a BBM who can arrive late into the box and be more central than a MEZ.

I can try giving him a BBM role, but what about the left back in that scenario? Should I continue to use him in the IWB(s) role or will that collide with the space the BBM should work into?

[zabyl]

“Play out of defence” often brings DM/CM players deeper when keeper has the ball. You are distributing to CBs and FBs and this TI also brings back4 deeper to give a passing option. When you use “play out of defence” your attacking cm also comes deeper from his ideal position when the keeper has the ball. 

I suggest not to select both of those TI at the same time if you want your attacking CM to begin the attack in an advanced position when keeper has the ball.

Also you need to support this player with players around him. 

-LW is a Ws so he is a wide player and can combine with a MEZ but on the right a DLPs is a deeper and a static support option to him. HB also plays deeper then him. RW is an IWs and this role can be combined with him but i think an attack duty can be a better option for him. Also a different and ballmagnet role can be selected to make RW more centrally and more dominant in field to combine with him. I could use RW as a TREQ or AP if he had quality.

Your FW is a PFa and he plays like an AF i think. A more supportive FW role like CF/DLF/F9 can be a better option to combine with him.

I like the idea of focusing one player’s game and bringing more from him.

[Pterinochilus]

1 hour ago, zabyl said:

“Play out of defence” often brings DM/CM players deeper when keeper has the ball. You are distributing to CBs and FBs and this TI also brings back4 deeper to give a passing option. When you use “play out of defence” your attacking cm also comes deeper from his ideal position when the keeper has the ball. 

I suggest not to select both of those TI at the same time if you want your attacking CM to begin the attack in an advanced position when keeper has the ball.

Also you need to support this player with players around him. 

-LW is a Ws so he is a wide player and can combine with a MEZ but on the right a DLPs is a deeper and a static support option to him. HB also plays deeper then him. RW is an IWs and this role can be combined with him but i think an attack duty can be a better option for him. Also a different and ballmagnet role can be selected to make RW more centrally and more dominant in field to combine with him. I could use RW as a TREQ or AP if he had quality.

Your FW is a PFa and he plays like an AF i think. A more supportive FW role like CF/DLF/F9 can be a better option to combine with him.

I like the idea of focusing one player’s game and bringing more from him.

The logic behind having both "play out defence" and distributing to CBs and FB is to dominate possession and slowly build up attacks from behind. These things works very well in the tactics I use and the main problem is to get the that left sided central midfielder to contribute more efficiently. What I want him to do is to combine better with my DLP and initiate more forward passes in attack while at the same time having some defensive responsibilities. I am reluctant to change the role of my DLPs as he is always performing incredible well and changing the FW role into a DLPa made my striker score much less than as a PFa.

 

I could perhaps try to use RW as TREQ or AP, but would that really work when I already have a playmaker on the right side? Changing the RW into an IWa is something I will definitely try though and thanks for that suggestion

[Impacto]

Average ratings are a lie. Players get good avg. ratings when they score, assist or make key passes. But a player can play great in his role in the team and get 6.5 - 6.7 ratings. I recently went back to FM 20 for the sole purpose of training my tactical brain. My idea was to understand the game better and to generally clear up some things in my head. So in the last two days I've been watching more games on extended and even comprehensive highlights and I noticed that a lot of my players are doing exactly as they should. The team was overperforming, but the ratings were far from impressive for anybody that didn't score or assisted. So don't worry about average ratings, worry if the player is doing what you want him to do. 

The tactic is set up very well, it's actually similar to the one I use the most currently. Generally, on this FM it's hard to involve the midfielders more. What you can try is to tick 'focus play throuth the middle' to increase the mentalities of the MFs a little bit. You can also try to use the attacking CM as a box-to-box. I find that role to overperform a bit. Then you can probably move the IW to attack to keep the same balanced duties. What you can also do is give your player in that role some positive personal traits to force him to be more involved. "arrives late in the box", "run with ball often" and etc. 

I would also suggest to use 'overlap' on the right side to promote more bombing from the WB on the right side without increasing his duty. I think you can safely increase it to attack, but since you haven't done it, you probably have a good reason so this is a good way around it.   

[zabyl]

Purpose of my suggestions is only for maximizing your attacking CM’s performance. 

Your tactic is well balanced. Changing a RW role to a similar but more advanced one can be tried in a match experimentally to see if it can work or not.

I must add that lowering “attacking width” can give your attacking CM more support from his teammates. This TI can be tried also.

[Impacto]

49 minutes ago, Pterinochilus said:

The logic behind having both "play out defence" and distributing to CBs and FB is to dominate possession and slowly build up attacks from behind. These things works very well in the tactics I use and the main problem is to get the that left sided central midfielder to contribute more efficiently. What I want him to do is to combine better with my DLP and initiate more forward passes in attack while at the same time having some defensive responsibilities. I am reluctant to change the role of my DLPs as he is always performing incredible well and changing the FW role into a DLPa made my striker score much less than as a PFa.

Just saw this so to add to my previous post - Try to give your CM 'take more risks', 'dribble more' (if he can), 'move into channels', 'shoot more often'(if he can) and like I said give him some positive traits to make him do what you want. You can also go to Analytics, Team, Passing and see 'Passing combinations'. This will show you where things go wrong in your setup(for the most part). 

[Experienced Defender]

5 hours ago, Pterinochilus said:

I thought it might have something to do with the IWB(s) getting in his way but changing him into FB(s) didn`t help

Perhaps it's not about roles. Perhaps it's about your team instructions. What about removing the Work ball into box? Possibly also the Play out of defence? 

But if you are pleased with how the tactic works overall, I would definitely avoid making changes for the sake of a single player. Especially as nominal match ratings do not always reflect how a player has actually performed. Match stats can be misleading, so I believe only what I see while watching a match. That's what only matters to me. 

[Pterinochilus]

Thanks for the help! I changed my CM into a BBM and removed the "work ball into box" instructions and it greatly helped.